Snap-seal.



E. J. BROOKS.

SNAP SEAL.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.16, 1912 I 1,027,812, Patented May 28, 1912.

WITNESS .9 5, l I 4' 4 INVENTOR I 3 53 flvmza 0 6 A :-,/1ll0rney COLUMBIA YLANOGRAIIII CU.,WASIIINGTUN. h. c.

EDWARD J. BROOKS, OF EAST ORANGE, JERSEY.

SNAP-SEAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 28,1912.

Application filed March 16, 1912. Serial No. 684,147.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. BROOKS, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Snap-Seals, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates, in common with previous improvements, to self-fastening seals, or snap seals as they are commonly termed, for use, as substitutes for lead and wire seals and other press-fastened or pressfastenable sealing devices, to secure the doors of railway freight cars and for other like purposes. Examples of such snap seals are set forth in the specification of United States Letters Patent, No. 1,013,836 granted January 2, 1912, to E. J. Brooks & Co., for lVinfred Mudge Brookss improvement in snap seals, and in my previous specifications forming part of United States Letters Patent Nos. 997 ,234: and 1,009,277, therein referred to.

i The present invention is more particularly additional to those above mentioned, which relate in common to snap seals of the bulb type, especially the three-piece snap seal of said Letters Patent No. 1,013,836, in which the bulb members of the snap catch fastenings of the seal are integral with the top piece of a sheet-metal bulb having a circumferential seam at its top.

The present invention consists in an improved snap seal of said bulb type, and in certain novel combinations of parts severally embodied therein, as hereinafter particularly described and claimed.

The leading objects of this invention are to locate the point where the shackle and seal part interlock within the bulb-shaped seal part as far aspracticable from the inlot, so as to render access thereto more diflicult; to facilitate making the shackle of very thin resilient and polished strap iron, as set forth in my previous specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 997,234,

by providing the shackle with catches that.

are normally flat and in the plane of the body of the shackle; and to form a highly effective inlet guard by the cooperation of the shackle with the top of the seal part.

Other objects will be set forth in the general description which follows.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figures 1 and 2 are plan and edge views of the flat blank of the improved seal part top piece; Figs. 3 and 1 are bottom and edge views of the same piece having its primary bends; Figs. 5 and 6 are like views of the same in its finished form; Fig. 7 is a side view of the latter; Figs. 8 and 9 are plan and side views of the bottom or bulb piece of the seal part, detached; Fig. 10 is a plan view of the finished seal part; Fig. 11 is a face view of the improved shackle; Fig. 12 is a small scale elevation of a fastened snap seal including the improved seal part and shackle; Fig. 13 is a fragmentary elevation of the seal with said bulb piece of the seal part in section; Figs. 14 and 15 are small scale elevations of fastened snap seals including a slightly modified seal part applied to other shackles; Fig. 16 represents a magnified section through said modified seal part; and Fig. 17 represents a section on the line A-B, Fig. 13.

Like reference characters refer to like.

ably and conveniently of said thin resilient and polished strap iron, although it may be .cutfrom suitable resilient sheet metal if desired. In each species, the improved seal part a or (E, is composed of two pieces, 1 and 2; the first being a top piece bent up from the flat blank represented by Figs. 1 and 2; and the second the bulb piece, 2, shown detached by Figs. 8 and 9. The top piece 1 has a disk portion, 3, at one end provided with an inlet slot, 3, of ample dimensions; two underlying portions, 4 and 5, from which angular lips, 1 and 5, are severed except at one edge of each; two depending portions, 6 and 7, adjoining said underlying portions respectively; and a narrow bottom portion, 8, containing a close-fitting catchslot, 8, which may thus be located as close as practicable to the bottom of the bulbpiece 2, within the seal-part, when the parts are finally united by means of the circumferential seaming rim 9 at the top of the bulb piece. The slotted bottom portion 8 constitutes the catch-engaging member of the seal part. The flat toppiece blank is folded and bent on the dotted lines in Fig. 1; said lips 1' and 5' projecting upward through said inlet slot 3 and alining said depending portions 6 and 7 and catch slot 8 therewith. The shape of the top piece 1 as thus bent up is shown by Figs. 3 and at. To complete the same in its preferred form its lower corners 10 and 11 are next bent in opposite directions as represented in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, so as to deflect the ends of the catch slot 8 away from the plane of its central portion as shown in Figs. 5 and 1.0; Compare Figs. 13 and 16. After this bending operation, the seal-part pieces 1 and 2 may be permanently united by the circum: ferential joint 9 formed by said rim, 9, as shown in Fig. 10 and Figs. 12 to 17 in clusive.

The interlocking portion of the shackle b or b or preferably and conveniently con sists of a pointed catch end, at each or at one extremity, having a pair of edge notches, 12, 13, Fig. 11, and preferably a central longitudinal slit, 1 1, forming and separating a pair of catches, 15 and 16, which are normally fiat and in the plane of the body of the shackle, and are temporarily bent in opposite directions in passing through the catch slot 8 as represented in dotted lines in Fig. 16, preparatory to springing back to their normal plane at the fastening operation. In this plane, in the fastened seal, they cross the lower corners 1.0 and 11 of the depending portion of the top piece 1 near the bottom of the seal part as clearly shown in Fig. 18. Access to these catches and their manipulation through the inlet slot 3 so as to release the shackle end or either of two shackle ends is thus rendered practically im possible.

In the first species, represented by Figs. 1. to 13 inclusive and Fig. 17, both shackle ends are fastened as above described after passing one end of the shackle through a pair of car-door staples, 0, or the like (Fig. 12). To further protect the snap catches in this species, the lips 4 and 5 of the top piece of the seal part a project permanently upward, as shown especially in Fig. 17; and the respective shackle ends are further con structed with inlet guards, 17 and 18, formed by suitably milling embossed projections on the shackle, and adapted to admit the upper ends of said lips 41' and 5, respectively, as shown in Figs. 18 and 17. The insertion of tools into said inlet slot 3 is thus effectively prevented. The shackle Z) is further provided, as is customary with suitable distinguishing marks or lettering, represented by 100009 and A. B. C. By. in Fig. 11

In the modified seal part of, Figs. 14, 15 and 16, the lips 4 and 5 may be and are flattened down on top of the top piece 1 as shown in Fig. 16. Otherwise the construction may be the same as that above described, and is intended to be so shown. The shackle 6 Fig. 14, apart from its single snap-catch end of the construction above described, is

of the bolt form set forth in my specification forming part of United States Letters Patent No. 719642, dated February 3, 1903, and is inserted through a pair of horizontal staples, (Z, or the like into the seal part a The shackle 6 Fig. 15, apart from a single snap-catch end of the construction above described, is of the loop form shown at Fig. 16 in United States Letters Patent No. 912,534, dated February 16, 1909, and set forth in my specification forming part of the same; the shackle being looped to a pair of car-door staples, 0, or the like, before the snap'fastening operation.

Other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

Having thus described said improvement, I claim as my invention, and desire to patent under this specification:

1. A snap seal, having, in combination, a seal part composed of a top piece and a bulb piece permanently united by a'circumferential joint, said top piece having a disk portion provided with an inlet slot, underlying portions, depending portions adjoining said underlying portions, and a bottom portion connecting said depending portions, provided with a catch slot, and adapted to serve as catch-engaging means, such means being thus located at a distance from said inlet slot and near the bottom of the seal part within the same, and a flexible shackle having a catch end constructed with resilient catches adapted to be inserted through said catch slot and to permanently interlock with said bottom portion beneath the same; the other end of said shackle being secured in any approved way.

2. A snap seal, having, in combination, a seal part composed of a top piece and a bulb piece permanently united by a circumferential joint, said top piece having a disk por tion provided with an inlet slot, underlying portions, depending portions adjoining said underlying portions, and a bottom portion connecting said depending portions and provided with a catch slot, the lower corners of said depending portions and therewith the ends of said bottom portion being bent so as to deflect the ends of said catch slot from the plane of its middle portion, and a flexible shackle having a catch end constructed with resilient catches normally located in the plane of the body of the shackle and adapted to be bent out of said plane in passing through said catch slot and to interlock with said bottom portion beneath the same; the other end of said shackle beingsecured in any approved way.

3. The combination, in a snap seal, of a seal part composed of a top piece and a bulb piece permanently united with each other by a circumferential joint, said top piece having a disk portion provided with an inlet slot, underlying portions, lip portions severed from said underlying portions except at one edge and projecting upward through said inlet slot, depending portions adjoining said underlying portions and alined with the sides of said inlet slot by said lips, and a bottom portion connecting said depending portions, provided with a catch slot, and adapted to serve as catch-engaging means and a flexible shackle having a catch end constructed with resilient catches adapted to be inserted through said catch slot and to permanently interlock with said bottom portion beneath the same; the other end of said shackle being secured in any approved way.

4. The combination, in a snap seal, of a seal part composed of a top piece and a bulb piece permanently united with each other by a circumferential joint, said top piece having a disk portion provided with an inlet slot, underlying portions, lip portions severed from said underlying portions except at one edge and projecting upward through said inlet slot, depending portions adjoining said underlying portions and alined with the sides of said inlet slot by said lips, and a bottom portion connecting said depending portions and provided with a catch slot, the lower corners of said dependingportions and therewith the ends of said bottom portion being bent so as to deflect the ends of said catch slot from the plane of its middle portion, and a flexible shackle having a catch end constructed with resilient catches normally located in the plane of the body of the shackle and adapted to be bent out of said plane in passing through said catch slot and to interlock with said bottom portion beneath the same; the other end of said shackle being secured in any approved way. a

5. The combination, in a snap seal, of a seal part composed of a top piece and a bulb piece permanently united with each other by a circumferential joint, said top piece having a disk portion provided with an inlet slot, underlying portions, lip portions severed from said underlying portions except at one edge and projecting upward through said inlet slot, depending portions adjoining said underlying portions and alined with the sides of said inlet slot by said lips, and a bottom portion connecting said depending portions, provided with a catch slot and adapted to serve as catch-engaging means and a flexible shackle having at each extremity a catch end constructed with resilientcatches adapted to be inserted through said catch slot and to permanently interlock with said bottom portion beneath the same.

6. The combination, in a snap seal, of a seal part composed of a top piece and a bulb piece permanently united with each other by a circumferential joint, said top piece having a disk portion provided with an inlet slot, underlying portions, lip portions severed from said underlying portions except at one edge and projecting upward through said inlet slot, depending portions adjoining said underlying portions and alined with the sides of said inlet slot by said lips, and a bottom portion connecting said depending portions, provided with a catch slot, and adapted to serve as catch-engaging means and a flexible shackle having at each extremity a catch end constructed with resilient catches adapted to be inserted through said catch slot and to permanently interlock with said bottom portion beneath the same; said shackle being further provided at a suitable distance from said catches with inlet guards adapted to admit the upper ends of said lips and to cooperate therewith as guards for said inlet slot, substantially as hereinbefore specified.

EDWARD J. BROOKS.

Witnesses:

MONTGOMERY LINDSAY, LEONARD O. LINDSAY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). 0. 

